One of the advantages of having children is that you get to live twice. I get to hear music, see films, read books that I would never see at my age, if it were not for my daughters.

So it came to pass that I saw White Chicks (Google gallery), the 2000s version of Some Like it Hot. Both films are examples of cross-dressing in film (my favourite in this genre still being Ed Wood’s 1953 Glen or Glenda?). White Chicks differs from these films in that it adds a racial dimension (whiteface/blackface, see Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and minstrel shows).

Enter John Currin; proving that high art and low art often make use of the same tropes. Currin’s grotesque portrayal of the ‘white chicks’-stereotype reminded me of this 2004 film. See this John Currin Google gallery, and especially this, this, this, this and this.

Take one look at John Currin’s paintings and you could assume he likes stupid women with big tits. Pouting, wide-eyed ingénues look vacantly out of his canvases while ladies in mini-skirts measure each other’s immense breasts. There is nothing politically correct here. –Francesca Gavin 05 September 2003 via http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1164971

Psychological realism 6/10 (reflects the zeitgeist), feelgood factor (I laughed out loud) 7/10, oddity value 6/10.